Should I include WiFi and TV in my rental?

Question

Hi everybody and thanks for the great place to learn REI.

I have a 4-plex that is almost renovated and I'll be turning it over to a PM real soon.  I had the idea to get a satellite TV account and connect 4 receivers to one dish, and include TV with the rent.  I could also do something similar with a DSL modem in the laundry room and include WiFi as well.  The thought is the cost wouldn't be that much per unit and it would make my units stand out above the competition.  Opinions?

Daniel Sitler · Answer

I would say it depends on the area that your rental in located as well as how competitive of a price you can activate the service for (and how much you can charge for it)

Rental incentives work quite well in downtown and upscale areas. I've had luck raising rents to include snow removal and landscaping on single family homes, as well as bi-weekly cleaning for downtown condos. I find it helps create a niche for my rentals so that they are separated from the competition.

Steve Babiak · Answer

NO - they use Rent-A-Center or something similar to get their big screens!

Anthony Zandonatti · Answer

One of the biggest trends in amenities in 2015-2016 is property-wide WiFi services. Multifamily properties do well to provide the technology amenities that residents—especially the growing Millennial segment—demand. High-speed, reliable internet service has proven to increase both attraction and retention, and provides a new source of revenue.

But unfortunately, providing effective property-wide Internet (i.e., MDU, community or campus-style Internet) isn’t as simple as just setting up a router for a “hotspot” like the type found at your corner coffee shop, library, business center or poolside. These dynamic networks need a high level of expertise and synergy to function. It takes the right design, equipment, support and management of the network to handle hundreds of residential devices simultaneously. You want to make sure you have the right Internet provider, the proper equipment, dedicated bandwidth and excellent end-user support.

In the past, investing in these types of expensive managed internet networks was limited to enterprises, universities, banks and high-end facilities that had the resources to hire an MSP (Managed Service Provider) and pay for the up-front installation costs. Setting up reliable property-wide “anywhere” access requires a very precise skill set. Even with the help of an IT department, many organizations have failed to implement the right design, equipment and management of these sophisticated systems. The end result is often wasted money and decreased resident loyalty.

However things have changed; niche focused multifamily MSPs are now offering new service models. They are taking advantage dropping prices on highly sophisticated and feature-rich equipment, developing in house proprietary management and policy software, and implementing expert engineering and design. As a result, enterprise-quality, affordable property-wide WiFi solutions catered to multifamily properties are now available to all property owners.

Four Keys to Success

To ensure reliable property-wide high-speed access for your residents, focus on the following key factors. Missing even one will almost inevitably lead to a failed deployment; successful solutions encompass all four:

1. Look for an end-to-end solution provider, not a patchwork of vendors

There are many different types of Internet providers, most just offer bandwidth. “Big Box” Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will give you connectivity alone, leaving your residents and staff to handle individual user set-up and troubleshooting. You don’t want your property managers having to provide front-line technical support. Working with a skilled MSP, on the other hand, will ensure a problem-free installation and service experience for both you and your residents.

Look for a provider who will engineer and manage the entire solution for you. They can design an installation with equipment that is the right fit for your property, set up all the hardware and configure the network. They’ll handle customer activation and connection services, maintenance, repairs and upgrades, Internet security protection and monitoring.

2. Don’t cut corners on equipment.

Some properties have been seduced by apparently “easy” and cheaper equipment solutions that are available from firms like Ubiquiti and Netgear. However, these solutions, while somewhat effective for small deployments, are not suited for the complexity of an entire apartment building, condominium complex or residence community. These “off-the-shelf” solutions won’t cut it; you need specialized equipment designed for a property-wide deployment. While this equipment may be bit more expensive, the expense pales in comparison to the costs of a failed installation in wasted money, time and resident dissatisfaction. An excellent choice for equipment that surpasses most expectations and is considered the most feature-rich for the price is Ruckus Wireless (NYSE: RKUS). Of course you could always install CISCO, Aruba or Meraki products for double the price; yet even still Ruckus seems to outperform.

Must-have equipment features include:

• Centrally managed dual band 802.11ac wireless access points throughout the property.
• Remote monitoring solutions and remote network management capabilities.
• An intelligent network controller to manage the user authentication, device grouping/networking (per-unit/account basis).
• Dedicated, blended or redundant bandwidth control.

An effective, customized solution will typically pay back in just 12-17 months; that’s certainly worth the investment to ensure happy users. “You don’t want someone who’s just going to sell you what they want to sell you,” says the Director of Asset Management at a large national developer of multi-family properties. “You want to work with a provider who is looking at your property’s needs now and into the future, and is really tailoring the system to you and the end user.”

3. It’s not just about bandwidth; it’s how it is delivered!

Don’t be fooled by offers of high bandwidth (speed) alone; reliability matters. A superhighway with a fast speed limit isn’t actually fast if there are potholes all along the way that force you to drive slowly. You want a service provider who will give you high bandwidth and a guarantee that you can drive fast, uninterrupted. Additionally, look for symmetrical speeds (e.g., 50x50 Mbps) to cater to your tech-savvy and business residents.

Many bandwidth providers (e.g., cable and DSL providers) will give you “best effort” accessibility, but that’s not the same. Ask for guaranteed up-time (service availability) of 99%.The type of bandwidth matters too. Fiber is optimal, but another delivery method will work too, as long as it comes with a 99% guarantee. Cable Internet, modem Internet, or DSL solutions will not be effective for a property-wide service in almost all cases. Blending multiple streams of Internet like fiber and modem internet is also a cost effective way to get the best of both worlds; affordability and reliability. This blended solution is only possible, however, if the right equipment selections are made.

4. End-user technical support is essential.

This point can’t be stated enough. You’re not in the business of providing end-user technical support and Internet troubleshooting; your MSP should be. Responsive, 24/7 customer service availability will make the difference between happy, satisfied residents and a flood of complaints.

Conclusion

The recent history of property WiFi includes many property owners and management companies that have tried and failed; property-wide WiFi it is not plug-and-play solution but requires technical know-how to design and customize the deployment. If you keep the four key considerations in mind, however, you and your residents will have an extraordinary online experience. Fast, reliable service throughout the property that gives residents the flexibility and ease they are looking for. This all will very likely  increase your property value far beyond the cost of installation and services.

“If you don’t invest the resources to set it up right from the outset, you’re wasting your time,” says the prominent Asset Manager. “You’ll just end up ripping it out, or leaving it dormant. A skilled end-to-end WiFi solution provider can not only ensure the success of a new installation and ongoing services, they can fix or retrofit any messed up system you already have. We got the experts in here to do it right and now my residents couldn’t be happier with both the system reliability and the customer support. It’s become a big differentiator for our properties.”

Shaun C. · Answer

I house hack a duplex and just keep in mind that routers and modems both need to be reset from time to time to keep working. As long as you let everyone know where they are in the common space, and how to reset them, I don't think you will have a problem.

Another potential problem leaving it out in the open is what happens when everything goes missing? Who pays for that? You do unless you have video surveillance of the area.

Sam Leon · Answer

Couple of observations.

You probably need to check with your satellite TV carrier and ISP if it's a violation of terms of services to do what you are planning - using 1 dish and 4 receivers and running a modem into a laundry room.  Sounds like you are thinking of obtaining a regular account under your own name, and run wires into each apartment, and have them share the use of the internet via WIFI connecting to a router in your laundry room?

Most ISPs and Cable carriers standard account is for personal use.  Therefore it would require a valid street address.  If you don't live there you would still need to attach the account to a physical address (one of the apartments).  Yes you can provide a mailing address to your home for billings, but they need an address for the actual "install".  It needs to be 123 SE 4 STREET, APT 2 or some such, not the laundry room of 123 SE 4 STREET.  This means one of your tenant occupied apartments need to serve as the "install location".  When the cable TV is out of service, the cable guy who comes will knock on the door of "APT 2" and he would expect the TV is for APT 2 and APT 2 only.  If you put in your own wires running into APT 1, 3 and 4, he most likely would report you for violation of terms.

Many cable TV companies do offer bulk accounts, where you could assume the bills for all the accounts but they remain as separate accounts.

Same thing with ISPs.  If you put a modem in the laundry room and give out WIFI passwords to the tenants, and by doing so you obtain an advantage in your rentals over your competition, whether you gave them away "free" or charge them for it, this is technically a business use and not personal home use.

Someone already mentioned potential issues with tenants illegal activities such as pirating copyrighted content, which could get you in trouble with the ISP or carrier.  But the bigger danger is something serious like child porn.  A tenant may watch a online porn clip involving an underage person, or a tenant joins an online forum to participate in discussions of underground buying and selling of weeds, you could have a real issue.

Also, with a single account, most ISP even when they say no data limit, has a data limit.  If one of your tenants stream movies all day long, you could run out of data and impact all others.

The other potential issue is the need of printing.  Once you provide internet, one of the tenants may be a student and needs to print a paper.  They want a printer.  They could get their own wireless printer, and connect their printer but I believe that would require them to have admin access to your modem right?  I am not 100% sure about this but I think so.

Andrew Meyer · Answer

I was thinking of adding this to rentals as well, seems a nice thing to add, that they tenants don't have to worry about and if you can get even $25/unit more you easily pay for it and could possible make a few extra $$ over the long haul.

Generally speaking the ISP would send a warning letter you the owner of the account (you) if they are downloading copyright material and caught doing it... and lets face it, that would be 99% of the issues. Now if it is something super illegal and the FBI come running... I honestly don't see it an issue. The ISP is tied to the rental unit and you just give them the information they need, saying you provide the WIFI for the rentals as an amenity.

Account Closed · Answer

What I did in one of my highend rentals is provide the option to use Internet wifi in the building for cheaper ($50/mo) than getting it themselves. However I stipulate in the rental contract that they may not engage in illegal activity or downloading copyrighted files, specifically mentioning bit torrent, and doing so is a breach of the rental contract.

I don't make much money on it but a number of tenants have mentioned it was what pushed them over the edge to rent a $3k apt, which admittedly is high.

George P. · Answer

maybe I am paranoid, but if the tenants commit internet fraud or do anything worse, you'd be the first one on the hook since you're the account holder.

Lee Holzhauer · Answer

The internet would be particulaly appealing.  Given how used to being connected people our, being able to avoid the delay of getting a provider there to set it up would really attract some people.

Alex K. · Answer

Thanks for the replies.  I wouldn't include the TV itself, only the satellite receiver boxes.  Marc makes a good point about illegal activities on the WiFi.

Should I include WiFi and TV in my rental?

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